Homeowners (and investors in the banks holding their mortgages) received a double dose of good news Tuesday, when residential property data provider CoreLogic (CLGX +0.00%) announced, first, that the number of new home foreclosure cases dropped 20% in June, and second, that the number of houses in any stage of foreclosure whatsoever dropped even faster -- down 28%.
According to CoreLogic's data, 55,000 homes were foreclosed upon in June, versus 68,000 completed foreclosures in June 2012. (Sequentially, the number ticked up from 53,000 foreclosures in May).
Granted, even 55,000 foreclosures is a big number relative to the 21,000 foreclosures-per-month we were averaging between 2000 and 2006. Then again, back then, home prices that seemed only to go up helped to keep foreclosures a rarity.
Expect them to get rarer still, in the months to come, because CoreLogic says there are currently only about 1 million homes in the U.S. in any stage of foreclosure whatsoever (the "foreclosure inventory"). That's down from 1.4 million homes in the foreclosure supply chain one year ago. Year over year, this works out to a 28% -- and here, the news is doubly good, because the foreclosure inventory also shrank sequentially, falling 2.9% from May 2013.
As of today, only 2.5% of all homes under mortgage are in the foreclosure process, says CoreLogic.
